


my ladies

by maketea



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Babies, Domestic Fluff, Dorks in Love, F/M, Married Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23173870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maketea/pseuds/maketea
Summary: adrien and marinette get used to being new parents. marinette just needs some sleep.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 22
Kudos: 252





	my ladies

When Marinette lowered her towel to her chin, she saw Emma looking right back at her. 

She smiled. "What are you doing up, beautiful?"

Emma giggled. Her white blanket jumped when she kicked her legs.

Hanging the towel off the hook at the back of the door, Marinette entered and sat at the edge of her and Adrien's, and, well, Emma's bed. Emma's eyes hadn't moved from her, and she giggled again, balling her fists up into the blanket.

Any hint of sleep was nowhere to be found.

Motherhood was lovely, but it was guilt-ridden. Like now, when Marinette's back still ached from carrying her wailing baby from the living room to the kitchen, up the stairs, pointing at her and Adrien's work-in-progress wall of family photos for forty-five minutes until Emma finally dozed off against her collarbone. She felt a twinge of disappointment at seeing her awake, when all she wanted to do was lie beside her and _sleep_.

Then Emma babbled something Marinette liked to pretend was _Maman_ and she fell in love all over again.

"What was that all about before, huh?" Marinette asked softly, leaning forward to put her forehead on Emma's and listen to her shriek with glee when her loose hair came around their faces like a dark curtain. Adrien had bought her a mobile that they suspended over her crib, one with stars and a moon and clouds, but Emma fussed when she didn't sleep between her Maman and Papa, and she preferred Marinette's hair sweeping around her than the stars and moon and clouds. "All that crying? Not so tired now, are you?"

Marinette bowed her face some more, and blew a raspberry on Emma's belly. She laughed, and kicked some more below the blanket.

"Silly girl," Marinette admonished, smiling, and reached up to stroke her baby's downy head. "My beautiful girl. I'm gonna be chasing boys off our doorstep with a broomstick."

Emma gurgled.

"Or maybe your Papa would. He'd just become Chat Noir and hiss at them."

Adrien and Marinette had had this conversation before, whispered, while they were both peering into Emma's crib filled with stuffed animals and their baby, during the _one_ time she agreed to sleep there.

"She's gonna be an eye-catcher when she's older," Marinette had said, breaking the silence. 

"I was just about to say that."

Those websites Marinette checked had all been right, which she hadn't expected when she was giggling over her phone screen with Adrien and calculating what their baby would look like. Emma's hair was dark — not black, but a warm brown — and she had inherited her mother's eyes. The rest was completely Adrien, which Alya didn't understand when Marinette first told her ( _Girl, she's a baby, how do you know how her cheekbones are gonna look? / It's obvious! She has Adrien's face!)_

That she did. And she was beautiful.

Marinette kissed Emma's pudgy face. "My Papa tried scaring _your_ Papa off, too. Actually, he was happy when he thought your Papa was in love with me, which he was, but there was this whole misunderstanding—" 

Emma stared up at her Maman with big blue eyes and a string of spittle coming off her bottom lip.

Despite herself, Marinette stopped, a little embarrassed. "I'll tell you that story when you're older." She pulled up the edge of the blanket and wiped Emma's chin.

For a while, she kept quiet, and waited to see if the silence and her motherly fiddling (the ends of her hair, her gossamer eyebrows, the white blanket tucked around her) would lull Emma back to sleep.

Emma continued to look at her, with a giggle every now and then that would make Marinette giggle, and they'd giggle back and forth for a few moments before lapsing back into silence.

It was Emma's turn to giggle, but instead her whole body leapt, and she gave another gleeful shriek, bouncing supine with a gummy smile and her eyes snapped to the window over Marinette's shoulder. 

She looked around, and there was her husband, crouched on his staff outside, waving at them.

Marinette then looked back to Emma, who was still bouncing, but no longer facing the window.

"Should we let him in?" she asked. Emma smiled at her. "Yeah, let's do it."

Bundling her all the way up to her neck, Marinette hoisted her up (wincing at the dull ache in her back) and carried her to the window. She turned her back against the wind before undoing the latch, and stepped back while Chat Noir pushed through and hopped onto the carpet. 

"Claws in," he said, pulling a triangle of cheese from his shirt and handing it to Plagg. 

Absentmindedly, he pushed back his ruffled hair.

Twenty-five, a wedding band on her finger, her baby nestled against her shoulder and running her tiny hand through her hair, and Marinette still blushed when she looked at Adrien.

"We were deliberating over whether we should leave you outside or not," she said, and stepped closer. Enough so she could feel his body heat coming off him. 

"You mean _you_ were deliberating. Emma loves her Papa too much." Adrien used his free hand to cup Marinette's cheek and kiss her forehead. He kept it there, with little desire to move after she turned her nose into his palm and closed her eyes. Softly, he asked, "how're you?"

"Missing my kitty," she said against his thumb.

"My Lady." And he made better use of his hand, gave his wife something more than just a scruple to nuzzle into, and wrapped his arms around her. She slumped into him, Emma still on her hip, head finding that place below his chin she had discovered when they were fifteen and cuddling on her chaise. "I'm here now."

"You _are_ ," she crooned.

His embrace tightened. "You want to take patrol for the rest of this week? The fresh air might do you good."

It would, Marinette knew, but she'd ache for home. She ached every other week, when it was Adrien's turn with Emma and hers with Paris. She loved being Ladybug — the wind, the skyline, the clouds hanging low over the timid moon like a wedding veil — but the crook of her arm often throbbed without her Emma to hold, as did her heart without her Adrien by whom _she_ could be held. 

It was getting harder and harder to stay up waiting for the other to get back. It was nice to wake up and find Adrien had fixed the duvet around her and pried Emma from her arms to make her breakfast, but it would have been nicer if she could remember the warmth of his touch instead of inferring it.

"What if we cancel patrol for the rest of the week?" she said, eyes still shut. "Paris will be fine for a couple of nights."

Emma's warm fists brushed her cheek as she took some more of her hair. Marinette maneuvered her so she, too, could listen to Adrien's heartbeat.

"Are you sure, Bug? I don't want you to worry even more." 

Maybe she would worry later. But maybe she'd thank herself, too.

Marinette leaned back to smile up at him. "I'm sure. I just want some family time."

And it must've struck him the way it struck her — _family_ . Marinette, Adrien, Emma. Their house, their bed, their kitchen. Shared laundry hampers, coffee mugs with _Maman_ and _Papa_ written in bright bubble letters, Christmas cards. 

Soon there'll be pink marker on every wall below three-feet high. Juice stains, paint stains, _stains_ , little pinafores and frocks and stripy T-Shirts in the washing baskets, too.

Parent-teacher conferences. Two big hands holding two little hands as they cross the road. Ice cream for three that becomes ice-cream for two-and-a-half because Emma will always take more than what she can finish.

A family, with all its imperfection and perfection. Something they created together. Adrien and Marinette's masterpiece.

"You look exhausted," he said after gazing into her eyes.

"Thanks, Adrien. You really know how to make a girl swoon."

He laughed. "I mean" — and he cupped Emma's foot through the blanket — "you look exhausted. Leave her with me for tonight."

"Oh, Adrien." She secured the blanket around Emma and handed her over. "You _really_ know how to make a girl swoon."

He snickered, hauling her up. She was getting sleepy, now. Marinette realised when Emma only blinked when Adrien kissed her nose instead of giggling like she usually did. 

That, and the way she dropped her head against her Papa's collarbone. Unable to resist, Marinette slipped a hand under the tailend of Emma's white blanket and rested her hand in the space between Adrien's chest and Emma's tummy.

"I'll take her downstairs so you can get some sleep."

Marinette's expression must have betrayed her, perhaps the quick flash of her eyes.

"Or not?" he said. 

"Can't you stay here?" she asked. 

"What if we make too much noise?"

Marinette shook her head. "I want both of you here."

Adrien smiled. He held Emma tight when he leaned over, and Marinette kept her hand right where it was as they kissed.

(She would behave. She would not start _something_ with Emma just about to doze off between them. She could wait until tomorrow, no matter how much she missed him.)

Adrien's lips hovered above hers, and she tipped her head back farther, so she could count his fair eyelashes and feel his smile.

Emma whined. They both glanced down. She had her bottom lip stuck out, sucking on her knuckles.

"Alright, my ladies." Adrien placed a hand on Marinette's back, and adjusted Emma in his arm. "Let's get to bed."


End file.
